Admitting the Truth
by Jennbear
Summary: Lux and Eric decide to tel Cate and Baze the Truth. What will happen to them? What will become of their relationship?  Read and REVIEW PLEASE!
1. It's like Ripping off a Band Aid

Admitting the Truth – It's like ripping off a band aid

"Cate, Baze, there's something I need to talk to you about." I could feel their eyes on me, expecting me to get to the point quickly. I pointed to the table indicating that they should sit down.

Ryan and Math headed for the door, "No, stay" I say with more confidence than what I was feeling. They sat down at the table next to Baze.

Eric walked into the apartment, he still thinks this is a bad idea but we need to tell them, I need them to understand what's going on. He still thinks that it's all wrong.

"Actually, there's something WE need to talk to you about." Motioning for Eric to join me. He comes to stand beside me, Cate speaks "Lux what is it? Why is here? Are you having more trouble in school?" I shake m y head no, willing the words to spill out but nothing comes, right now is not the time for my mouth not to work.

"Eric and I have been seeing each other" I blurt out. Baze launches himself out of his chair knocking it over, and I quickly move to stand in front of Eric. "You pervert!" he screams." how could you take advantage of her? You know what has happened to her! You know what shes been through! How dare you!" Ryan and Math have intervened and are now holding him back.

"Baze STOP! PLEASE listen to me and hear me out" I plead. " No! I'm calling the cops, he's gonna be put on one of those lists, and he will never be allowed to be around kids again" Baze pulls out of Ryan and Math's grasp and goes over to the phone. I run up to him and pull it away.

"Stop! He hasn't touched me! He hasn't taken advantage of me!" I scream just as I hear a slap. I turn around to see Cate standing in front of Eric and his face turning red. "PLEASE sit down and let me finish! PLEASE!" pointing back to the table. I grab his hand and start pulling Baze back to the table he reluctantly begins to move to the table. I turn back to Cate and Eric when cate begins to scream, "You! I trusted you to protect her! How dare you! After all the things I said to you in the book store, after THANKING YOU for being there for her! After telling you how great you've been! How dare you do this!" I move back to stand between Cate and Eric, en Eric finally breaks his silence " I'm sorry! I never meant for any of this to happen, I never meant for things to go this far.." before Eric can continue Baze jumps begins to scream again.

"what do you mean you didn't mean for this to happen? Your her supposed to be her teacher! Not some sick freak who takes advantage of her!" Baze is suddenly towering over me screaming as he's trying to get to Eric.

"I didn't know she was 16! I didn't know she was who she was and by that time it was already too late" Eric says, his voice cracking.

I can see Baze forming his fist " Baze please stop and listen" I plead, just then he swings, and by reflex I move backwards pushing Eric into the wall and Baze's fist impacting with my face. A large 'crack' echoed throughout the apartment and before I know it 2 arms are around me to stop me as I'm falling.

Eric's half holding me on the floor when I look up to Baze with pleading eyes, he's crying. I've never seen Baze cry before. "Please, PLEASE I promise we can explain everything. Just listen." I plead hoping that they will hear me out before calling the cops on Eric. We both knew it was a possibility but we were hoping it wouldn't come to that.

"Lux...Lux I'm SO sorry. I didn't mean to hit you." Baze replies.

"I know" I say reassuringly, "but please sit, and hear us out".

Everyone nods and moves to sit back around the table, Eric is standing beside me with one hand on my back letting me know he's there. And then he begins to speak, hoping that they will give us five mins and hear us out.

"We met downstairs, at the bar the night of the fire. I took her to see the ocean" he pauses for a moment looking down at me before continuing "I didn't know she was 16, she was wearing a U of O shirt, working in a bar, wearing an engagement ring and talking about a guy she had been seeing for years" I decide that I've finally had enough and chime in. As Cate opens her mouth to speak I hold my hand up.

"I didn't tell him either. I didn't tell him I was 16, I didn't tell him that I wasn't in college. All I told him was that I wanted to see the ocean." I pause for a second looking at them. Cate and Baze both have so much anger in their faces, but with that anger was confusion by some of the things we were saying. I silently pray that they will understand as I continue on, "When Math introduced us a week later, at school, that's when we finally realized who we were." again I pause "and by then it was already too late." I look Baze in the eyes, his anger slightly defusing, cates however is not.

"So why didnt you stop? Once you found out why didn't you stop seeing each other?" cate fired with angered questions.

"We tried." Eric responds with calmly. "We tried to distance ourselves, to stay away from each other but it didn't work. " Eric steps away from me at this moment and walks to the far end of the table.

What I say next causes everyone to stop and look at me, "Eric didn't pursue me. I pursued him."

"Lux" Eric says trying to interrupt

"No Eric. If we're telling them the truth then they're gonna know all of it." looking at him. I then turn back to everyone else, "I pushed Eric, he tried to put some distance between us, keep it professional, but I couldn't. The feelings that I was feeling were too strong and I couldn't ignore them. Eric tried to stop me, telling me that we shouldn't be feeling like this, that we shouldn't be acting on it but I didn't listen to him. I didn't want to listen to him."

"I know I should have stopped but I couldn't either. I tried to find other ways to show her that I cared with her school work and trying to figure out why she was having trouble and by getting her to do better" Eric adds. "but I too gave into what I was feeling. "

"How far?" I look at Cate to se what she's asking, "How far has it gone? How far have you both gone." Shes asking the one question that we can answer confidently knowing that we haven't done anything wrong. Eric would never let us get close enough to that.

"Kissing, that's it." I reply with. Everyone then looks at Eric and he nods and replies with "Just kissing."

"Our relationship has never been about sex." I quickly add. "it's always been about the mental and emotional connection that we have together. Never sex!"

Her voice cracking Cate pips in "I need time to think about this. We need time to think and talk about this..." motioning to everyone sitting around the table.

I nod and look at Baze, he's still so angry like I figured he would be. Math and Ryan's expressions vary from hurt to lost, they don't know what to do or how to help. They're just there. I finally look at Eric and he speaks " Whatever you decide, whatever punishment you see fit for me, I deserve it" when I open my mouth to protest he holds up his hand "but please know that I love her. I really do, I know this whole situation is messed up and wrong but I do love her."

With tears in m y eyes I run over to him and wrap my arms around him needing the comfort. Once inside his arms I collapse crying, knowing that this may very well be the last time I get to hug him. Eric resists for a few slight seconds before giving in, he too realizing what admitting this to my parent's means.

I'm sobbing when we pull back from each other, I can see Eric has tears rolling down his face and we rest our foreheads together. I turn mine slightly to get a better look at my family sitting at the table. Cate and Baize's expressions have boh turned from anger to hurt and confusion.

After awhile Cate finally speaks up. "Give me your cell phone." reaching her hand out. I'm confused, why does she want it? At this point I'm not going to argue. I pull away from Eric and take it out of my pocket and give it to her. After looking through it for a minute she looks up at me, "where's his number Lux? In Your phone what's his name?"

That's why she wanted it my phone? To look at his contact info? After a Few seconds I respond with, "Minnesota" and everyone looks at us with a questioning stare.

"By lying to us you have now given up your right to privacy." Cate says sternly looking back at my phone.

I look back at Eric for some kind of sign, comfort or reassurance that things will be ok. Eric gives me a small smile but he's not convinced, nor is he convincing me.


	2. Accepting the Consquences

Admitting the Truth- Chapter 2

We sat in silence for almost an hour in the bar. With Math chaperoning us we sat around a table in silence waiting to hear what the verdict was. I prayed that Cate and Baze will understand our situation and take it easy on Eric. I love him, more than I thought was possible to love anyone, he understands me, and he gets me. By the simple fact that I don't hear police sirens or see police cars we all can breathe a little easier knowing they haven't taken that step.

When we hear someone coming down the stairs we lift our heads towards the sound, its Ryan, they sent him down to retrieve us. Feeling as though we're walking to the electric chair we make our way upstairs. Eric grabs my hand and holds on, knowing that we'll need whatever comfort we can get.

We stop to stand in front of the table where Baze and Cate are sitting, waiting for our sentence. Ryan and Math standing on either side of Eric and I.

"We're not going to turn you in," Cate begins to say and I let out a sigh of relief, "oh thank GOD!" I'm so happy; I turn and wrap my arms around Eric. I'm slightly shocked when he doesn't respond to my hug. Understanding that he's waiting for the rest I remove myself from his arms and turn back to the table.  
>"Lux, we are NOT ok with this, this relationship is NOT OK!" Cate says sternly. She turns her head to Eric and continues, "You, you are going to quit your job."<p>

"Cate, Wait!"

"No Lux, he is going to quit his job and find a new one somewhere else. I don't feel comfortable with him teaching you." I look over at Eric and he nods in response to Cate, "Ok."  
>"Good." I look at Cate, the look in her eyes has now changed, instead of anger I see something else, something I don't recognize.<p>

"Lux, I know you were forced into growing up and… and being this adult that had to fend for herself but that's not the case anymore. Now, now we're here and it's our job take care of you and to protect you." Cate takes a deep breath before continuing, I'm praying shes not going to say what I think she's going to say. "This relationship between you two has to end. NOW! It's what's best for you." I grip onto Eric's hand, we knew this might come but I still hadn't fully prepared myself. I look at Eric, tears now escaping my eyes, he lets go of my hand and turns to me wiping my tears away.

Taking my face into the comfort of his large hands he looks me in the eyes, "We knew this was going to happen Lux, we knew that this was a possibility." Eric says quietly, "we both knew that we had to say something and face the music. I love you Lux, but you also know that I want the best thing for you, and right now the best thing for you is for me to go." Eric's last words break my heart,I don't want him to go, I don't want to lose him. Right now all I want to do is turn back time and stop our decision to tell my parents. "No, No"I plead shaking my head at him. "don't go" I put my arms around him hugging him to me. I don't want to lose him, of all of the reasons that make Eric Daniels the 'wrong guy' there are a thousand more that make him the 'right guy' too.  
>Clinging to him I turn my head to Cate and Baze, "Please," I plead "Don't do this, don't make him leave. He's done so much for me; he's the one that figured out that there's something wrong with me!" Eric tightens his hold on me, "Lux, it's going to be ok" he whispers.<br>I'm not sure if my mind is playing tricks on me or not but I swear that I see a tear slide down Cate's cheek; she turns to Baze "I want to talk to you for a minute." Baze nods and they walk off to his room.

Eric pulls away from me, "I think it's best if I leave" he says solemnly "I don't want you to get into anymore trouble." He leans forward and kisses my head; I close my eyes wanting to savor and remember the feel of his lips, committing this memory so I'll always remember it.  
>Baze's yelling interrupts our goodbye, "YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!" echos thought the small apartment. Eric and I turn our heads towards Baze's room; Ryan quickly moves past us and goes into the room. I wish I could be in there, I want to know what their saying about us. Eric pulls out of my arms and turns to Math, "I'm sorry man, I didn't want things to turn out like this" he extends his hand and Math accepts it.<p>

"I know you didn't plan this and the situation sucks. I wish there was something I could do. Good luck man." Math says sincerely.

Eric looks at me tears pouring down his cheeks, and pulls me into his arms one last time resting our forehands together, "I. Love. You. Eeyore." he says slowing emphasizing each word, I'm so lost in our togetherness that I didn't notice Cate, Baze and Ryan open the door and are now back in the living room. "I love you too Minnesota." I raise my hand and put it into his Hair pulling his face closer to me, "I love you too." I kiss lips softly savoring the feel.

Baze clearing his throat makes us pull away from each other. Eric turns to them, "I'm sorry for everything. I know I can't undo what I've done" Baze raises his hand to stop him from speaking. Carefully and slowly looking between the two of us, "Do you really love my daughter?"

Eric's demeanor changes, suddenly very serious; "I do." He looks Baze in the eye, "I'd do anything for her." My heart feels a sense of security in hearing Eric admit this, he's already risking his life, future, and career by being with me.

"Anything?" Baze asks, raising an eyebrow almost as if he's daring Eric. I'm suddenly very afraid of where this conversation is going to go.


	3. Decisions

Admitting the Truth – Decisions

Almost as if Eric's accepting Baze's challenge he seriously says, "Anything." I'm unsure of what's happening right now but I'm pretty sure it's not good.

Baze looks down at Cate, "Alright, I'll go along with it."

"Ok Mr. Daniels as I see it there's 2 options we have here to proceed with." Cate says seriously. I'm really afraid of where this is going to go, I'm afraid of the 2 options they've come up with.

"Option 1, you leave Portland and you will have no further contact with Lux until she is at least 18 years of age." I knew I wasn't going to like where this is going. I look over at Eric and he nods, "And option 2?"

"You stay in Portland, keep your job but you 2 will have no contact with each other. You are not allowed to talk to each other, you will not be her tutor, and you will have no contact with each other." Baze explains seriously. "If you violate these conditions we go to the police."  
>I want to scream at them, I want them to know and understand how messed up these arrangements are. I look at Eric; he's looked down at his feet staring at them like they're going to tell him what to do.<p>

We're all standing there quietly for a few minutes before Eric looks up and speaks, "Can I have some time to think about it?" 'Time? Why does he need time?' My head screams! If looks could kill, the stare that I'm giving him would have taken out everyone in Portland! Why does he need to think about this? It's obvious that he should stay, he should stay here and we can at least still see each other.  
>"You have 24 hours," answers Baze.<p>

"Cate, Baze" I say looking at them, "Can I speak with Eric?" I'm hoping they'll let us speak alone. I know I can convince Eric to stay as long as I can talk to him, "Please?" they look at each other sharing a silent conversation with their eyes. Cate turns back to us, "5 minutes. That's all you get. Say whatever you have to because this will be the last alone time you will get."  
>Cate motions for everyone to follow her, they go down the stairs to the bar, Baze is the last one to leave, giving us both a look before closing the door behind him.<p>

"Stay" I say launching myself into his arms, "stay here. I don't care if we can't be together at least I'll be able to see you and we, we can figure something out." Eric tightens his arms around me, "Lux I can't. I won't be able to handle seeing you and not being able to talk to you. It will be too much temptation."  
>I pull back from him and kiss him. We're both bathing heavily when we pull back, "can you honestly tell me that you'll be able to resist the temptation to do that when you see me?"<p>

"No, but I'm going to have to try." I plead with him.

"But you won't have to TRY if I'm not here." Eric argues.

"I turn 18 in a little over a year. After that we can be together, after that they won't have any say in what I do." I argue, I don't want him to go, I'd do anything to keep him here. "Please Eric, don't go."

"I need time Lux, this is my decision to make" he says looking down at his watch. "They're coming back up in 2 minutes and I want to do this 1 more time." he captures my lips, god it feels so good to kiss him, all of the love we feel for each other being expressed in this last kiss.  
>We pull back from the kiss when we hear their footsteps on the stairs. We're still embraced in a hug when they enter the apartment.<p>

"Alright I think it's time that you left" Baze says sternly, "Remember 24 hours."

"Yea I got it," Eric turns to look at me pulling something from his jacket pocket. I'm curious as to what it is, what could possibly be in this little red box? Why is he giving it to me now? Is he leaving? Is this a going away gift?  
>I'm so scared when I look up into his eyes, and when he begins to speak my heat fills with a coldness, "To teach what I should have taught you in the beginning," he says quietly as he places a hand on my face, "To help you find your way without me." with those final words he lets go of me and walks out the door.<p>

As the door closes I crumble to the floor crying, I feel as though someone has just punched me in the chest; it's so hard to breathe and my head is spinning. "Lux?" Cates voice breaks into my head, "Lux it's going to be ok." No! No it's not my head screams! Suddenly a tightness in my chest starts restricting my breathing I grab my chest trying to grasp for air, "Oh my god Lux are you ok?" Cate is now holding me on the floor. The pain is so bad and all I can manage to do is shake my head as my world goes black.


	4. Perceptions

**So Formatting for uploading SUCKS right now and I keep having to upload and then re upload this chapter. I'm SORRY If its still not right! **

Admitting the Truth – Perceptions

They had been in the hospital for 3 before a doctor comes in to tell them what's going on, "Please have a seat, I'm " the doctor sits down and opens the file in his lap "It seems that your daughter Lux has suffered a stroke." Giving Cate, Baze, Ryan and Math a few minutes to digest the bombshell he just dropped on them before telling them what's next, "We have given her some medicine right now, but from the CAT scan performed we can see that there is some swelling in her brain."

"What? What does that mean?" Cate stutter's out, looking frantically at the doctor for answers.

"It means that right now the best thing for her is sleep, I'm recommending that we induce her into a coma so that the drugs can work better to help relieve the pressure in her brain. I do need to ask you a few questions though to try to determine the cause of the stroke. Can you tell me what she was doing right before hand? Was anything going on that may have been overwhelming or physically exhausting?" Dr. Marshal asks.

All four of them look at each other trying to decide how to proceed, before Cate and Baze have an opportunity to say anything Math responds, "She had just broken up with her boyfriend. She was really upset." All eyes staring at Math in disbelief at the choice of words he had just used.

"Ok, so it's possible then that this stroke was brought on by extreme emotional distress."

"It's safe to say that," Math answers.

Baze, who has been staring at this whole thing, breaks his silence, "For how long? How long with this take? She's going to be ok right? Our kid is going to be fine right? I, I means she's had a stroke before and was fine she'll get out of this one OK too right?" Firing off questions to the doctor wanting answers to how Lux is.

"I'm sorry but right now it's too early to tell. We are monitoring her situation carefully and we will keep you updated." Dr. Marshal calmly explained, "We will be moving her to the PICU, and you'll be allowed to stay with her 2 at a time. A nurse will come out to get you when she is done being moved and you can see her." Standing up, shaking the hands of both Cate and Baze before walking away.

Standing up, "This, this is our fault!" Cate screams, "She freaked out because of the decision we made and now look where we are! GOD Baze we gave our daughter a STROKE! We have to be the world's BEST candidates for the World's WORST Parenting award!"

Ryan walks up to Cate putting his arms around her, "You had no idea this was going to happen, and you cannot blame yourself for this Cate. It's going to be fine; she's going to be fine." He says comfortingly looking over at Baze, "You, you cannot blame yourself either. There was no way to stop this from happening, no way to predict that this was going to happen."

Baze lifts his head from his hands looking at them, "She's our kid, we're supposed to protect her and here we are putting her into the hospital! What kind of parents does that make us?"

Math sits down next to Baze putting his hand on his shoulder, "Baze, Lux is going to be fine." He says, "I mean look at who she has for parents. She's going to come out of this just fine."

A nurse comes out 20 minutes later to tell them that Lux has been moved and was now in the PICU, "If you'll follow me I can take you to her, of course only 2 of you can go in at a time the other 2 will have to wait in the waiting area."

Math and Ryan both step back, "You 2 go; we'll wait in the waiting room." Ryan says, giving Cate a kiss on the head, "Go. Go see her."

Math and Ryan both sit down in the sterile waiting room, "I really wish they would paint these walls something other than white," Math says breaking the silence "It's too sterile, it, it makes me feel like I'm in a hospital."

Ryan looks at him with a questioning glance, "But we are in a hospital."

"I know but it doesn't need to feel like one," Math explains as his phone goes off signaling a text. "Oh great, because this is really going to help things" Math says sarcastically.

"What is it?"

"It's a text from Eric."

"Well? What does it say?"

"It says, 'Math, I've tried calling both Cate and Baze but they don't answer any of their phones. I left them both messages but I wanted to inform you as well. I've made my decision, and I'm going to leave town. It's what's best for Lux. It's been great working with you and again I'm sorry with the way things turned out.'" Closing his phone angrily, "This sucks!"

"You really feel for the guy don't you?" Ryan asks looking at Math.

"Well yeah, don't you?" Math fires back. "Yes it was wrong and they never should have gotten involved with each other but they didn't know that when they started seeing each other. You can't stop yourself from falling in love with someone, trust me I tried that years ago and it didn't work out then so I'm sure it still doesn't work now."

Ryan turns toward Math, "You were THAT in love with Cate in High School?"

Math looks down at his hands, "Yes." He confesses, "I would have done anything to even get her to notice me but I wasn't even a blip on her radar." Sighing heavily, "She was up here," motioning to a spot above his head, "and I wasn't even on the scale to be measured. So I know how it feels; I know what it feels like to love someone that you shouldn't be in love with and not be able to do anything about it. I feel for him. Think about it, how would you feel? Remove yourself from the fact that Lux is your step daughter and think about it. Your 23, you meet this cute girl that you fall for instantly, and then find out that she's 16, you have to see her every day, tutor her every day, and then tell me would you be able to stop yourself?" Math questions Ryan.

"No, probably not," Ryan answers honestly "But there's nothing we can do about it, and nothing changes the fact that it's still wrong."

Cate and Baze walk into Lux's room, gasping at the sight of all the monitors and instruments connected to her, "Don't let the machines scare you, she's still your daughter just with a lot more technology right now." The nurse says softly.

"Thank you," Baze says looking at the nurse as she exits. Turning his attention back to Cate and Lux, "She looks.." Bazes voice trails off, not knowing how to put into words what he's thinking.

"I know Baze, I know" Cate replies softly, taking a seat in the chair next to Lux's bed, extending her hand to hold Lux's. Baze moves to the other side of the bed taking a seat and holding Lux's other hand in his, "Come on kiddo, were right here and waiting for you to come back to us," he says softly. Raising his other hand to brush the hair away from her face and stroking her forehead.

Both Cate and Baze sit next to her bed quietly for almost a half an hour before Cate finally breaks the silence, saying the one thing that has been plaguing both of their minds, "We made the right choice right? By giving Mr. Daniels the choice to leave, we made the right choice right?" Cate asks softly, "If it has this kind of effect on her maybe it wasn't the right one." Cate pauses for a moment looking at Baze, "Maybe she loves him more than we gave her credit for."

"How are we to know if it's real Cate? How do we know he hasn't tricked her or was forcing her like Trey did?" Baze questions softly.

Cate looks Baze squarely in the eye, "Only one way to find out."


	5. Gone

Moving sucks and it sucks even harder to try to pack while you're crying. I Wipe my face as I turn back to my closet, thankfully it's almost completely packed, reaching for the garbage bags I grab one and sit down on the floor throwing my shoes in it. "I need to do this," I repeat over and over to myself, it's become my mantra the last 3 hours.  
>I need to move, I need to do this. For her, it's what's best for Lux. I turn around picking up my suitcases and head for my truck. If I leave tonight I can at least make it to Idaho before I need to stop. Walking up to the bed of my truck I toss my suitcases into the bed before turning around to lean against it. My tears and emotions keep threatening to take over right now and I can't let them. I swallow the lump in my throat, close my eyes and take a deep breath willing these emotions to just control themselves for a few hours. I just need them to stop for awhile, I just need to be in control until I leave here, then they can take over. Opening my eyes I push away from my truck and head back into my place, I need to keep going, I need to keep busy, I need to get out of here.<p>

Once I'm back in my room I begin stacking my books into boxes, one by one packing up the life I've made here in the past few months. It almost all doesn't seem real, I moved here for a fresh start, I met Lux, and now I'm leaving. Looking around my bedroom I see my reality, I see that it really is real and I'm packing up to leave the girl I fell in love with.

Picking up the box of books I just packed I walk back down the steps and outside, tripping over the curb spilling the books into the street. 

"DAMNIT" I scream, my emotions are finally getting the best of me, I bend down to pick up a book and feel a rush of anger taking over. I throw the book to the ground and begin kicking others, hot tears running down my cheeks " DAMNIT! DAMNIT! DAMNIT!" I scream over and over, "It's not fair!" I turn around and kick my favorite book sending it flying into the curb, the spine of the book cracks against the curb sending pages flying everywhere. This isn't the way to deal with this, I need to control myself, I bend down again picking up the books to being putting them back into the box I notice a picture laying on the ground that came out the now shattered book at the curb. I sit down on the curb and pick up the picture, I don't have to look at it to know what it's of, it's of the two of us at that wedding, god we were so happy and now look what's happened. She's probably never going to want to see me again after I left her at the apartment.

Tears begin running down my cheeks as I run my finger over the outline of her face, "I'm so sorry Lux, I'm so sorry" I whisper, placing the picture against my chest I fight for another breath to calm myself before bending down to resume my task of picking up the books. I need to get out of here and I need to do it quickly.

"How are we to know if it's real Cate? How do we know he hasn't tricked her or was forcing her like Trey did?" Baze questions softly.

Cate looks Baze squarely in the eye, "Only one way to find out."

Standing up Cate kisses Lux on the head and squeezes her hand, "I'm going to figure out how to fix this, I may have been an awful mom before but I promise you I'm going to fix this," Cate whispers to her before turning around and leaving. Baze stands and quickly kisses Lux before following Cate out.

Baze grabs Cate's arm just outside of the waiting room forcing her to turn around and look at him "Cate, wait what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to go talk to Mr. Daniels. I need to understand," Cate pauses and takes a calming breath, "We need to understand what really was going on. Our daughter is lying in a coma with swelling to her brain, that doesn't happen over some silly puppy crush!"

"He's gone Cate."

Cate and Baze both turn around to see Math and Ryan standing outside the door of the waiting room.

"What? What are you talking about Math?" Cate can barely get the words out, "We gave him 24 hours to decide, it's been what 5? He's still here."

Math lowers his head, taking a deep breath and putting his hands in his pockets. Looking up he responds to her earlier question, "No, he's gone."


End file.
